Located in historic Griffith Park, the Los Angeles Zoo is a world-class facility that houses literally thousands of species of animals, plants, and insects. The Los Angeles Zoo is home to many of the most popular and well-known mammals, birds, amphibians, and reptiles in the world, as well as some of the most obscure and rare species on Earth. Some of the most visited exhibits in the park feature animals such as gorillas, elephants, lions, antelope, tigers, giraffes, wolves, and zebras. Visitors are also delighted to find rare specimens of golden lions, okapi, and snow leopards in the mix as well, earning the opportunity to not only see the creatures live but to learn as much as possible about these endangered and disappearing species.
The Campo Gorilla Reserve
One of the main attractions at the Los Angeles Zoo is the Campo Gorilla Reserve, a unique habitat created for the zoo’s gorillas that allows visitors to observe the primates up close and personal like never before. Since opening in the fall of 2007 at a cost of $19 million, the reserve has featured a family of gorillas led by a silverback male and a pair of bachelors that have lived and fought together as they traversed the open spaces of their specially designed home. The high cost of the facility was used to recreate the West Central African environment in which the silverback gorillas thrive, recreated with waterfalls, heavy branches, and even down to the kinds of shady plots of grass they seem to prefer.
The Elephants of Asia
The other primary exhibit at the Los Angeles Zoo is known as the Elephants of Asia, a stunning journey to the East where elephants have long been revered and mythicized by the populations of Thailand, India, and China. As such, the exhibit takes visitors through individual subsections dedicated to the elephants of these native lands. The Thailand area, known officially as the Wasserman Family Thai Pavilion, showcases what has happened to the population of Thai elephants no longer needed for labor and working the land. As technology has advanced in Southeast Asia, elephant labor has become dispensable, leading to so-called herds of ‘unemployed’ elephants that have no recourse but to join the wilderness, some of them for the first time in their lives. The exhibit tries to raise awareness of this issue as conservationists and wildlife lovers alike grapple with issues unique to elephants.
The India and China sections of the exhibit inform visitors on how the two nations have a longstanding tradition of honoring the elephant, though modern populations of the species have dwindled to only a few hundred in China while thousands of Indian elephants are relegated to reserves. These special areas include waterfalls that are also home to rare species of sarus crane and Chinese water deer.
The Botanical Gardens
While the animals are obviously the main attractions at the zoo, visitors rarely forget to check out the stunning costars at the Botanical Gardens which features thousands of varieties of plants, trees, and flowers. Some of the most dazzling to behold include many plant species that only grow in the state of California. The fact that the highest peak (Mount Whitney) and the lowest valley (Death Valley) in the continental United States are both located in the state mean that some very unique species can only be found in California, including the flannel bush, the Dark Star Ceanothus, ribes, poppies, gooseberry, and even the famed monkeyflower. It’s almost impossible to take it all in in a single day, but many ambitious nature lovers try to do exactly that when they visit the Los Angeles Zoo.
